However, I kept the name of this blog anonymous to avoid Richard Treadgold’s obvious embarrassment.

However, if anyone wishes to debate my points they are welcome to contribute to the comments on my post.

My guess is it is something like Webalizer. (The screenshots in his post are very similar). This is used to extract data from the serve access and usage log files.

There are a number of problems with this approach. It requires intelligent use to avoid over counting because of the way a page or visit may be interpreted. It can for example include each separate image file on a page as a visit if not careful. (See Simpletons Guide to Web Server Analysis).

Wikipedia also describes problems with the results from Webalizer (and this should apply to similar programmes):

“Generated statistics do not differentiate between human visitors and robots. As a result all reported metrics are higher than those due to people alone. Many webmasters claim that webalizer produces highly unrealistic figures of visits, which are sometimes 200 to 900% higher than the data produced by javascript based web statistics such as “Google Analytics” or “StatCounter”.”

Treadgolds promotion of his blog on the basis of such a programme may just be naivety on his part. However, if he is at interested in comparing his blog traffic with that of other NZ blogs (and after all he is the one raising the issue) then he should install a proper stat counter like “statcounter” or “sitemeter’. If he allows public access (as 230 other NZ blogs do) he can then see his blog traffic ranked objectively and honestly.

Currently Hot Topic is ranked 7 th at 1515 page views/day. Your claim would rank your blog at 4th above SciBlogs and “here comes the Sun.”

If that is so you should shout it from the roof tops! It would be great publicity for your cause – a higher rank than the leading scientific blogs in the country!!

I actually don’t believe you – you have made a mistake (perhaps monthly page views”?) or it is just bravado. But it is extremely easy for you to confirm.

Then later on you said this:

So again you make a claim that can’t be substantiated …[snip] Even when you would get great publicity for your blog.

What about sharing the average daily visit numbers for the last week?

No?

And again later:

I repeat – climate conversation blog doesn’t even rank.

Best explanation – Treadgold has been telling porkies again.

Of course, based on Richard’s stats, it may make more sense if he allows you to post here instead, it’ll probably reach a larger audience.

I have asked Richard what programme he is using for the data – obviously I would like to find out what the data means. Richard himself says:

“What the figures mean, I don’t know”

He obviously needs help.

So Richard – what about it? What is the programme? What us the file? I am prepared to research it a bit and write something on your claims.

Yes it possibly helps blogs get more traffic – I notice every time I do a monthly ranking people do follow many of the links. I guess the 7day average spreadsheet also helps but I have no access the google doc traffic.

If the listing also inspires bloggers to improve their blogs and attract more traffic – good on them.

More realistically the rankings give each blogger an indication of how they compare with others. They can draw their own conclusions. But the more bloggers on the list the more useful it is.

Jon – you are mistaken . The figure you quote is for moonshine. Conversations is not even listed on Alexa. This is an indication of low traffic and short history. However , SciBlogs is younger than conversations and is listed. So low traffic us the obvious problem.

Andy, one can add one’s blog to Technorati. I suggest Richard Treadgold dies this himself. But usually any blog with reasonable traffic is added automatically.